“Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.” (Matthew 24:42-44 NASB1995)
Now the context of this is the signs of the end of the age
and the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. There will be many false prophets and
teachers, some of whom may proclaim that they are the Christ, the long awaited
Messiah, while others might just act as though they are gods to be worshiped
above God. But many will be misled by these false teachers to believe an
altered gospel message intended to suit the sinful desires of the flesh and to
ignore God’s requirements of death to sin and obedience to his commands.
And then there will be wars between nations. And evil
people, some of them disguising themselves as followers of Christ, will deliver
up true followers of Christ to persecution and to tribulation and to death, on
account of their walks of faith in the Lord Jesus and their obedience to the
Lord, and because of their testimonies and their witness for the Lord Jesus and
for sharing the true gospel message that many do not want to hear or believe.
And some of us will be betrayed to the death by those pretending to care about
us.
And God will judge his idolatrous and adulterous church
which has largely gone the way of the world and has given their loyalty and
devotion to what is not of God, but what is of human flesh. And there will be
great tribulation beyond what many of us have never experienced before. But for
the sake of the elect, this time of tribulation will be cut short for the
salvation of human lives. But we are to be so guarded against false prophets
and the lies which they spread. We must be very discerning people so we don’t
get trapped.
Now, not one of us knows when this is going to take place,
but we should be able to discern when the time is getting near when we see the
signs being fulfilled before our eyes. And we are to take this very seriously
and not think that we can just live however we want, like many people are
believing that they can do and still end up in heaven. For our Lord made it
quite clear that we must forsake our sins and follow our Lord in obedience to
his commands or we will not inherit eternal life with God, but we’ll end up in
hell.
For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny
self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if
we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity.
But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience
to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with
God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew
7:21-23).
And we learn in 1 John 1:6-7: “If we say that we have
fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice
the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from
all sin.” And in 1 John 2:4-5: “The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’
and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but
whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.”
And in 1 John 3:7-8,10: “Little children, make sure no one
deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is
righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned
from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the
works of the devil.” “By this the children of God and the children of the devil
are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the
one who does not love his brother.” So we need to take this to heart.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John
6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1
Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32;
Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2;
1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh,
to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This
is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly
I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus,
Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh,
to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving,
forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping
the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking
the wandering sinner to find.
O
to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy
and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly
enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing
to suffer others to save.
O
to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour
out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make
me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit
me for life and Heaven above.
Oh,
to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd
Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come
in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp
Thine own image deep on my heart.
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We Must Be Ready
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